1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a continuous rubber-strip forming apparatus for building a tire by winding a rubber strip on a tire-building drum, and to a continuous forming process.
2. Background Art
There has been known a continuous rubber-strip forming apparatus, which takes the following procedure to form a rubber layer having a predetermined profile. While a ribbon-shaped rubber strip having a predetermined sectional shape is fed onto the tire-building drum driven as rotated, the rubber strip is moved along a drum shaft (rotary axis) of the tire-building drum whereby the rubber strip is wound on an outer periphery of the tire-building drum to form thereover the rubber layer of the predetermined profile. Known as such an apparatus is a rubber-strip winding apparatus disclosed in Japan Patent Registration No. 3177784.
The apparatus includes a strip feeder that is disposed at a drum driven as rotated and is movable in parallel with a drumshaft. The feeder includes a column and the like disposed on a base, the column on which the feeder is movable in parallel with the drum shaft by means of a transversely moving device. Thus, the apparatus is capable of continuously carrying out an automated, high-precision rubber winding operation on the drum driven as rotated, as reciprocally moving the rubber strip onto the drum. The rubber strip is continuously extruded from the rubber-strip extruding machine and fed into the feeder.
According to the aforesaid prior art, the rubber strip extruded from the rubber-strip extruding machine is fed to the tire-building drum by means of the feeder, which requires the mechanism for moving the feeder in parallel with the drum shaft. Accordingly, a distance between the forming nozzle of the rubber-strip extruding machine and the tire-building drum is increased. Furthermore, the feeder has a complicated mechanism. Hence, the apparatus tends to be increased in size.
In view of the foregoing, it is intended to provide a continuous rubber-strip forming apparatus for continuously winding the rubber strip, extruded from the rubber-strip extruding machine, on the periphery of the tire-building drum, the apparatus accomplishing the simplification of the feeder for feeding the rubber strip thereby avoiding the size increase of the apparatus. It is also intended to provide a continuous rubber-strip forming process.